The Broken Heart of a Werepony
by Aaron Ledgers
Summary: One morning in the land of Equestria, things began like always: Twilight was hitting the books, Spike was delivering letters, Rarity was tailoring some clothes, Rainbow Dash was out flying, Fluttershy was with her animals, and Pinkiepie was... well, being Pinkiepie. However, in another dimension on the same day, a girl is murdered and given a second chance at life... as a werepony.
1. Prologue: A Father's Love

**Prologue: A Father's Love**

"Daddy? I'm home," Danielle Evergreen whispered softly, tiptoeing through the dark hallway as her long white hair swirled around her torso. The place smelled strongly of beer and stale cigar smoke, making her cringe a little bit. While she was taking a cautious step forward, the girl accidentally stepped on a few fragments of broken glass and the crunching sound caused an avalanche of roars to resound through the entire house: she immediately flinched and squeezed her violet eyes shut, paling so much that her skin became translucent.

"Who the fuck is crashing around up here?" a deep voice bellowed, making Danielle cringe.

"It's just me, Dad," the frail girl hesitantly called back, voice trembling slightly; it was cold inside the house, as if the sunny warmth of the afternoon had refused to enter the darkened area. Her father suddenly filled the doorway with his powerful frame, blocking out the hall light so suddenly that she let out a squeak. The girl could see his widened bloodshot eyes even through the darkness: they were two glittering green orbs of malice and disgust. She froze and struggled to escape from the hatred in his eyes, but it felt like she was swimming through an endless darkness where she was being pulled under the surface and drowning. Desperately, the tiny girl swallowed and returned her attention to the living hell in front of her as fear moved up her throat. She could never summon the courage she needed to face her father: he was so much bigger and stronger that the difference in their size ratio alone was enough to make her tremble. When he took a step forward, she stepped back.

"Should have known," he sneered, lips curling in disgust. "Everything in our lives came crumbling down when you came into this family with your nasty albinism... I hate how those disgustingly innocent eyes look out of your mother's ugly face."

The albino girl remained silent, hoping that if she didn't speak he would let her go to her room without using her as a bunching bag for once: he'd repeated this speech so many times before that she knew it by heart, and sometimes the poor girl woke up in the middle of the night with the words hovering on the tip of her tongue. She was completely alone in the world now.

"You're the bane of my existence," he rambled on. "Who knows? Maybe if I hadn't fucked your mother so many times, you wouldn't be around to cause so many problems. Still, I don't regret it: you look more and more like that filthy slut every single day… except for your nasty albinism. Your white hair looks like lint, and your eyes are better suited for a filthy demon than a human being."

_It's not your fault… it's not your fault your eyes look like this,_ the girl silently chanted, squeezing her eyes shut. _It's not your fault your eyes are violet and that your hair is white… it's not your fault the albinism made you unnaturally pale and ugly. It's not your fault, Danielle... not._

His hands were suddenly on her shoulders, forcing her against the wall; he shoved his face in front hers.

"Are you listening to me, bitch?" he growled, making her turn her head to the side. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

"Stop it," Danielle whispered, not opening her eyes: she knew what would happen if she did.

"I'll stop when I want to!" her father snarled, smacking her forehead with his beer bottle. "Look at me right now, bitch!"

"I don't want to," Danielle weakly protested, voice coming out in a pleading whine.

"Look at me!" the man roared, making her flinch. "Open your eyes and look at me when I'm talking to you, Aurora!"

Aurora was her mother's name: Danielle was so startled by what he'd just called her that she opened her eyes and stared at the man with a stunned look on her face. The second he saw the unique color of her irises, his expression turned murderous and he slapped her as hard as he could: Danni instantly snapped her eyes shut again, but it was too late since he'd already seen them.

"Don't look at me with those disgusting eyes!" the man roared, using the butt of his beer bottle to beat her upside the head. "Those aren't your mother's eyes, those are the eyes of a nasty demon slut! That lying cunt should burn in hell with you and your nasty albino twin brother!"

Danielle recoiled away from the man's hand and squeezed her amethyst eyes shut even tighter: she wished her father would simply leave her alone, but his words about her eyes and hair were true. They weren't the eyes and hair of someone who was particularly normal: it was impossible for her to say that a regular human being could have such a strange pigmentation in their body without hesitating a bit first. Danielle grit her teeth and turned her face away from her dad, keeping her eyes closed so he wouldn't hit her again for having them.

A jarring impact on her cheek sent starbursts of pain rocketing into her skull, but then he shoved Danni away from him and began muttering angry words under his breath. When he stormed into the living room, the small-boned albino let out a shuddering breath and pressed a hand to her burning cheek, slowly forcing herself to walk up the stairs into her room. Judging by how the blow was both stinging and aching beneath the skin, she knew it was going to bruise by the next morning. After throwing her bag onto the floor, the girl turned on her light and faced the mirror with uncertainty. Her cheek was still burning unpleasantly with the impact of her father's heavy hand, but it wasn't as bad as the other times… she'd definitely had worse.

_I really do look like my Mom,_ Danielle thought sadly, touching her extremely long silvery hair as she looked in the mirror: she had the same satin-like texture to her hair, the same overly-plump lips, and the same fragile build as her mother… but unlike the woman who had given birth to her, Danni's height didn't want to extend over five feet and her features were abnormally pale. On top of that, while her mother's auburn hair had been short and breezy, Danielle had never cut hers because she'd needed some way to cover the bruises that were always showing up on her shoulders, back, and neck. However, the biggest differences between them was the fact that her mother's eyes had been a clear, crystal blue; Danni's eyes were a chilling pale violet that seemed to glitter like frozen amethysts.

And also that her mother's hair had been brown, while Danielle's was white with an iridescent silvery sheen.

_Why can't I leave here like my brother did?_ Danielle wondered, lowering her head in shame as tears began streaming down her cheeks. The same question always returned whenever her father did this, but deep down she already knew the answer to it: when her twin brother, Daniel, had turned fourteen he'd packed all of his things and left the house to live with some of his friends. He had been abused by their father for the same reason the man was abusing _her:_ he was an albino, like her, but he also had one yellow eye and one violet due to a birth defect. Danielle and Daniel had been very close growing up: he had always been there for her.

He had gone to the same school as her, too, until he'd transferred across the state. He wrote to her, occasionally, but the girl missed her twin so much that she sometimes cried at night. She prayed that he would come back: she wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, before their mother had ditched them without even saying as much as a goodbye… but when her brother had left her alone, too, she had given up hope on being loved by other people.

She had promised herself not to trust anyone, ever again.

However, after tearing herself away from her painful emotions and unhappy memories, Danielle rubbed her aching jaw and swallowed: unfortunately, today was her sixteenth birthday and she was celebrating it alone under terrible circumstances. This definitely wasn't the memory she wanted to make for her sweet sixteen, so after shaking her head, the albino girl looked up at the drawn picture of her favorite television show, My Little Pony: Daniel had sketched it for her several years ago because of how much she loved the series. Even now, she still loved the ponies: their personalities were eclectic and enviable, but they'd given her courage.

Even if they were only cartoon characters, they had given her enough strength to keep going through her father's abuse.

She knew it was corny, but she didn't care: _My Little Pony_ would always be her favorite television show. After a moment of staring at the group of loveable ponies, the albino girl rubbed the tears out of her eyes and pulled her math textbook out of her bag. She needed to study for her exams, which would at least distract the girl from her unhappy emotions: there was no party to be held for her birthday, so she might as well get some studying done before the night was over. Almost four hours passed by as Danielle worked through math and Chemistry. Studying helped the albino girl put all of her attention and thoughts onto her work so the graying world around her could fade away, leaving the albino with only words and numbers. However, the girl snapped back into reality when she heard the front door slam.

"Danielle?" a rough and scratchy voice called from downstairs. "Are you still home? We have a guest..."

Danni jerked her head up in the middle of an equation and glanced at the door with startled violet eyes: her father sounded almost lucid, and his words were pronounced rather than slurred. A touch of hope lit up the inside of her chest as she hesitantly stood up and made her way downstairs. He was in the living room with his back towards her, almost as if he were surveying the mess he'd made. Danielle's slender shoulders began to shake and her throat felt constricted with emotion: this was the first time in nearly ten years that her dad was sober enough to stand up straight without swaying.

Maybe... just maybe, her papa was back and going to stay.

"Daddy?" Danielle whispered, stepping up to him; the albino girl's dreams were shattered when he whirled around to face her. She took a shocked step back when she noticed his bloodshot eyes and the bags from his evident lack of sleep. He advanced towards her, surrounded by the mess he had created and completely at home with it: his eyes looked different, somehow much colder.

"I remembered a few hours ago that it's your birthday today," he stated in a low voice. "I remembered because I saw your brother, and he came to visit."

"Really?!" Danielle asked softly with hope shining in her eyes, trying to speak loudly and failing miserably. "Danny is back?! You're... not just drunk again?"

"Yes, he is, and no, I'm not... but do you two shitheads want to know what my first sober thought was?" the man laughed, green eyes narrowing with hatred. "I hate both of you with every fiber of my being... your lives were accidents, and you never should have come into this world. So, now that you're both here, I'm going to fix the mistake I made when I slept with the whore who gave birth to you demon children."

"No way," Danielle whispered, slowly backing away when the man started to advance on her. "NO! You're supposed to be my real dad right now! You're not being affected by alcohol or drugs, so why are you saying that?! My real dad wouldn't say such a horrible thing... he loves me! I'm his daughter! I'm _your_ daughter!"

"Not if I can help it," the stranger snarled, lunging at the albino girl with bloodshot eyes: it was only then that she saw the knife. Danielle whirled around to run, but by then it was too late: an agonizing ripping sensation smashed into Danielle's spine and time seemed to slow down. Her large violet eyes went round as the force of the unexpected blow knocked her clean off her feet. The girl managed to land normally and kept her footing despite the sense of unrealism that had descended upon her mind, but there was a heavy pressure building inside her body. After she caught her balance, Danielle slowly turned to look over her shoulder.

She gazed straight into her father's green eyes.

"Da...ddy?" she whimpered, violet eyes becoming huge when he smiled down at her.

"I'm not your father, slut," the man laughed in a maniacal tone of voice, jerking the blade out of Danielle's back as hard as he could. The force of his retraction spun the albino girl in a circle and sent her sprawling onto the cold wooden floor. She managed to let out one good shriek before her lungs froze: she suddenly couldn't breathe. When she glanced up, her hazed mind registered what her father was really holding: he'd just ripped a serrated butcher knife out of her back and all she could do was struggle for air like a fish out of water. Arching her back as the pain ripped through her body, Danielle began choking on something hot in the back of her throat, trying to breathe as blood began to stain the front and back and front of her clothes: the blade had cut clean through her body.

"You've been a bad girl, Danielle," her father chuckled as he sensually licked the blood off the edge of the blade; he waved his finger tauntingly at his daughter once he was finished cleaning it with his tongue, staring down at his child with a disgusted sneer on his face. "You really shouldn't have been born, you naughty girl."

"It hurts!" Danni frantically managed to choke out, mind becoming hazy as the agony consumed her consciousness and left her with nothing but pain. "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Mommy, Danny, help me! Make it stop! It hurts so much!"

"D-Dad…?" a familiar voice whispered, catching the attention of the psychotic father and his injured daughter: an albino boy with shoulder-length silver hair fell to his knees in shock and stared up at their dad with horrified violet eyes. The man grinned and moved past Danielle to advance on her brother; tilting her head up through the fog of pain, Danni watched as her dad leaned down towards her brother—waving the blood-covered blade in front of his nose. "Wha... what the hell is happening here?! Dad, you… you asked me to come here so you could apologize! You just stabbed my twin sister! What the fuck is wrong with you?! MONSTER!"

"It's alright!" the man laughed, drawing his hand along his son's cheek and exposing his wide, fiery yellow eye. "Don't worry, I'll be killing you next."

"N-no, get away from me! Someone, help us!" the albino boy roared, jerking away from his father's large hand as though it had burned him; the man smirked when Daniel clutched his cheek and turned away with a horrified expression in his eyes. "This isn't real... it has to be a nightmare... I have to wake up! Danny, wake up!"

"Don't worry, Daniel, I'm here for you," the man laughed, lazily flinging Danielle's blood at the boy when he glanced up; there was just enough of it to make him scream, and he laughed when the blood landed on his son's face. "After all, this is exactly what you little shits wanted, isn't it? Knowing how Daddy really feels?"

"Shut up… and leave him alone!" Danielle choked out, trying to make her psychotic focus on her instead of Daniel. "Nobody could… want something sick like… this! It's insane! _You're_ insane! Just leave my brother… alone… you… fucking freak! You're not my dad! You're a... monster! A MONSTER, DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Oh, my, you're very naughty," her father chuckled, slowly turning and moving towards the girl. "Daddy taught you better: it's not nice to insult other people."

"And stabbing people _is?!"_ Danielle hissed, struggling to breathe when her father plopped to his knees next to her. "You're... crazy!"

"It's time to die, you little shit... I promise it'll be quick! You're making your brother very sad," their father said with a maniacal smile, laughing as he cheerfully plunged the blade through both of Danielle's small hands and buried it to the hilt. The albino girl let out a breathless shriek of agony when he ripped it out again, involuntarily curling up into a ball because of the pain shredding through my body. "Does it hurt? Well, my dear, darling daughter, you should savor that sensation… because in a few seconds, it'll be the last memory you'll ever have."

Danielle slowly turned her head to the side and watched through hazed violet eyes as her own father lifted the blade as high as he could and rapidly started to plunge it towards her again. Upon realizing what he was about to do to her, Danielle frantically struggled to pull in enough air so she could scream for help, but her lungs were locked shut with searing pain and something very hot was filling them in the place of air and oxygen.

Her own father was going to kill her... and on her birthday no less.

Somehow, the world seemed to slow down as Danielle's violet eyes flickered with terror, and a thousand different scenes were going through her head at once. The closer that blade came to her, things she'd ever been able to do sprinted past her eyes. Memories of the things she'd done; dreams of the things she hadn't; pain from of the things she never would… all of it roared through her mind and made her feel frantic with terror. Just before the blade plunged into her body, however, someone's pale hand clutched the handle and their father looked up in amazement: Danielle looked up to see her brother struggling with both hands.

"W-what…?" the man asked in alarm, but then he shouted in alarm as he was unexpectedly dragged away from his daughter. Danielle heard running footsteps as the next door neighbor, a red-haired woman who she recognized as Naomi Valentine, burst into the room with her husband in tow. Once the two of them had taken over, Daniel bent over his twin with terrified eyes: the albino boy was frantic and shaking her arm, but Danni could barely make out what he was screaming now.

A few seconds later, another face flitted into view: her best friend from down the street, Lauren Markowitz.

"Don't die, Danni, don't!" Lauren shrieked in her thick southern accent, green eyes hysterical and blonde hair disheveled. "It'll be okay, Darlin', I promise! Hang on!"

"Jesus, she's losing so much blood," Naomi gasped, covering her mouth in shock even as she dialed the emergency number with her cell. "Theodore, put the towel over the wound and press as hard as you can! I'm calling the ambulance, but we need to stop the blood! We have to stop it!"

"Danielle!" a boy's voice hysterical voice cried, breaking through the fog that had enveloped the girl's mind. "Please, hang in there!"

"Daniel?" Danni whispered weakly, searching vacantly for the source of her twin brother's voice. "Lauren?"

"Yeah, it's us!" the albino boy cried, tears dripping onto her face. "I came to visit you since its our birthday! Just hold on! You're gonna be okay!"

"You're late," Danielle mockingly accused, choking as a warm feeling filled her throat.

"I… I know, but don't leave me... please," Daniel whispered, choking out the words with a hysterical edge.

However, Danielle barely even heard him anymore: something warm was pooling beneath my body as she lay there, but in a brief moment of clarity the girl managed to see the four people who were looking down at her. Miss Naomi's husband… his crystal blue eyes were wide behind his glasses and his face had gone completely white. Miss Naomi, as expected, was pale—but she was crying and touching Danielle's shoulders with shaking hands. Lauren was staring at her with the bright green eyes she loved so much, but instead of looking shocked by everything that had occurred, she looked terrified. Then she saw her twin brother, and her world shattered into pieces: Daniel was crying for the first time she'd ever seen. He'd never cried during the beatings... he'd never cried when their mother had left... he'd never cried when he'd gotten hurt for her sake... yet here he was, crying hysterically and clutching his sister's hand as though the act could save her.

That's when Danielle Evergreen knew she was going to die.

As she lay on the cold hardwood floor, trembling violently with a numbing feeling, Danni slowly managed to lift her small, lead-engulfed hand and stared at it through blurring violet eyes: her fingers had come away black, the color of blood that had been lost in the darkness of night. The pain was dulling… so she looked up and managed to grasp her twin brother's large hand, making his face contort when he realized how weak she was. Tears began spilling from her large violet eyes as the world slowly disintegrated into nothing, but just before she slipped away, she only had one thought on her mind.

It burned into the girl's dying heart with a pain she could never forget.

_Happy Birthday to me,_ Danielle whispered silently, eyes fluttering closed as her consciousness finally dissolved into golden sparkles.

**TXXXXXT**

"Hmm..." Fluttershy murmured softly, cocking her head to the side as she carefully inspected the burrow her latest friend had come out of. "Well, little ones, I don't SEE anything scary in there... it's okay, everything will be all better if you just believe that the scary things aren't real."

She turned and flapped her wings a little, smiling in a motherly way at the little rabbits who were nervously staring at their burrow hole.

"It's all right, see?" she coaxed in a gentle voice, fluttering her lashes and gesturing towards the burrow with a hoof. The rabbits timidly hopped forward and peered down into the burrow, and after a moment they looked up at her with relieved brown eyes. Fluttershy's heart nearly melted and she nodded her head demurely, smiling at the sight of their happiness and reassurance. "It's all right now, so why don't you... huh?"

Fluttershy blinked and glanced up, feeling an odd sensation traveling down her pale pink mane and straight into her tail: with apprehensive eyes, she looked around and pressed her fore-hooves together while she nervously flapped in the air, trying to figure out why she suddenly felt so uneasy. The rabbits seemed to sense whatever was happening around them as well and quickly took cover, bolting into the burrows with a speed that very nearly frightened the poor pony.

The animals in Ponyville had never been that jumpy before... not once in the entire time she'd known them.

"Oh, my... what's happening?" Fluttershy whispered, plopping heavily on the ground as her wings locked up from the fright: she stared up at the big blue sky with its magical fluffy clouds and gasped, blue eyes dilating when a _different_ type of cloud began to form, causing the artificial ones to disintegrate. It was the same type of cloud that normally appeared in the everglade forest: the kind that was made all on its own using the power of the ancient world. The yellow pony cowered down as the sky over Ponyville darkened with realistic thunderheads, swirling around a black spot that seemed to be growing larger by the second.

However, Fluttershy let out a squeak and covered her eyes with both forelegs when a brilliant white light exploded from the center of the storm and crashed down to the ground not even fifteen yards away from where she was cowering down. After a moment, silence reigned and the timid pony hesitantly lifted her forelegs: she blinked and shakily stood up again, staring up at the light beam that had exploded down from the sky. Then, a silhouette appeared from above the clouds.

Fluttershy blinked when she realized that it couldn't have been a pony.

Long silver locks were swirling around the descending creature's torso, the hair of which extended merely from the top of its head. It had no fur on its body, no wings of any sort, and not even a tail: the only thing she could really make out was that the creature was wearing some type of clothing that billowed loosely and beautifully around its frame. However, Fluttershy immediately stood up when she saw the creature was injured.

Severely injured.

Red had completely stained the front of its clothing, and its hands were streaming so much blood that the pony nearly fainted. Whatever creature this was, it needed help: she couldn't ignore the instinct to be the one who gave it. So, when the creature continued to descend and eventually came to a rest on the ground, Fluttershy hastily pranced over and began examining the injuries on the creature's body.

"Oh, my," Fluttershy whined, biting her lip as she took in the gruesome injuries. "Who would hurt such a poor little... EEP!"

She instantly cut herself off and leapt back when the creature began to glow, body lifting up into the air as it started to change right in front of Fluttershy's frightened blue eyes. The creature that she had initially thought to be an animal slowly shifted into the form of a beautiful pony that was completely white. The injuries didn't change, however, and she watched as the the overly large clothes slid to the ground before staring at the bloodied arrival with a gaping jaw.

Fluttershy had no idea what was going on.

"Oh, my," the Pegasus pony whined, looking around as she began to panic. "What do I do? I have to get help, I have to..."

"Daniel," the battered Earthland pony whimpered, ears flattening against her skull before she began crying in her sleep. "Daniel... Lauren..."

"No, please don't cry!" Fluttershy pleaded, bouncing from hoof to hoof as she fought to figure out what to do. "Please, it'll be okay! I'll go get help!"

With that she took off, figuring that the only way to figure out something as strange as this would be to get Twilight Sparkle.


	2. Chapter 1: The Beam of Light

**Chapter One: The Beam of Light**

"I have a feeling that today is just gonna be busy, busy, busy," Twilight grumbled, tossing her dark violet mane out of her eyes as she struggled to use a new age-changing spell on her assistant, Spike. The aforementioned 'baby dragon' was currently standing in the middle of the room with a highly unenthusiastic look on his slightly chubby face, green eyes half-lidded and skinny arms folded across his scaly little chest. "URGH! Why can't I get this spell right?"

"Here comes round three hundred and sixty nine," Spike droned, rolling his eyes before he gazed at the ceiling in dismay. "Think you can make it to four hundred?"

"Very funny!" Twilight snapped, panting as she focused her abilities to the extreme. "You know, if dragons didn't get so old then you probably wouldn't still be considered a baby!"

"Come on, Twilight," Spike sighed, rolling his large green eyes. "You've been trying this spell for hours! Why not take a break and come back to it? I mean, it IS supposed to be a spell that's marginally harder than the one that gave Rarity her butterfly wings when we went to see Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale."

Around that moment, Twilight's unicorn horn sparked and began to glow, and Spike was encased in a similar bright light: the dragon blinked and looked down at himself, spreading his arms a little as he glanced at his glowing legs and gently flicking tail. Twilight was still struggling, though, and after a moment the light fizzled out and she collapsed with her legs spread and her tongue hanging out. She looked thoroughly exhausted and extremely unhappy.

"I've never found a spell that was too tough for me to use until now," the unicorn muttered in frustration, slowly getting to her feet and moving over to her window with a discouraged sigh. "I'm supposed to be talented in magic, so what'll I do if I can't pull off one tough spell? I'm sure there are harder ones than this out there..."

"Well, maybe you just need to practice a bit more before you try something so hard," Spike suggested with a shrug, rubbing the purple scales on his arms before he jogged over to where Twilight had set her muzzle on the sill with watery eyes. "Come on, it's not so bad... if you want, we can go visit Applejack for an apple pie."

"No, but thanks for trying to cheer me up," Twilight sighed, smiling as she nuzzled his cheek and turned to clop away. However, a blinding light suddenly illuminated the entire room from behind and a ringing silence engulfed the air, making the unicorn freeze and the dragon gasp. Twilight slowly turned around and shielded her eyes for a moment, blinking rapidly to clear away the spots she was seeing before moving towards the window and looking out of it. What she saw made her eyes pop open wide: actual thunderclouds were forming, but these weren't the enchanted type that the citizens of Ponyville made... no, these were the _dangerous_ kind.

"What in the world?" Twilight whispered, narrowing her eyes as something black suddenly began to descend from the light. "Something's happening over there!"

"Obviously," Spike muttered, but he jumped and gave an innocent little grin when she glared at him.

"What if its another enemy that we'll have to fight using the Elements of Harmony?" Twilight worriedly asked, staring at the light descending from the clouds and watching as the beam thinned out and eventually disappeared. "I don't know about you, but I have a bad feeling about what we just saw..."

"Nope, I actually have a rather good feeling about it," Spike stated in mild surprise, rubbing his tummy with an amazed look when the pony turned to look at him with a suspicious expression: she was obviously trying to see if he was mocking her. "Seriously, Twilight, I have a good feeling! Normally I get a bellyache when bad things are really about to happen... it's why I believed that Pinkiepie's shudders were real that one day when everything seemed to go crazy."

"They ARE real!" a high pitched voice squealed, making the two of them jump when a fit of hysterical giggling exploded from behind them.

"Pinkiepie!" Twilight exclaimed, blinking in amazement. "How did you get in here, and when did it happen?"

"A few seconds ago and, uh, I walked through the door you left open!" the pink pony exclaimed, gesturing to the door with a bright-eyed expression. "Anyway, did you guys see that sparkly light that rained down from those scary black clouds?! Did ya, did ya, did ya?! What if it's Chaos again?! Will it rain chocolate milk?!"

"Uh," Twilight droned, blinking rapidly as she stared at her extremely over-eccentric friend, "I don't think so, Pinkie."

"Aw, that's kind of sad," Pinkiepie sighed, then perked right up once again and bounced around the room. "So, what'cha doing Twilight? Reading again?"

"Yep, as usual," Spike explained, staring up at the disintegrating clouds with curious green eyes. "I wonder what that dark thing was... you know, the thing that floated down from the sky? What do you think it could have been, Twilight?"

"I don't know, Spike, but I have a feeling that we're going to find out one way or another," Twilight mumbled, climbing up the ladder and sifting through her shelves as she tried to find the tome that explained odd weather occurrences. However, when Pinkiepie bounced over to the door and closed it with a giggle, the door slammed open again only two seconds after she moved away and the purple pony lost her balance: letting out a startled cry, Twilight Sparkle slipped off the ladder in an ungraceful heap and was buried under at _least_ a hundred books. Spike winced and rolled his eyes, since this was a fairly common occurrence for his friend.

"Help!" Fluttershy whimpered, trying to be loud and urgent yet completely failing at it. "Help! I need Twilight!"

"Fluttershy?" Pinkiepie exclaimed, bouncing over with wide eyes. "What's all the fussy wussy about?"

"Where's Twilight?" the demurest of the six ponies whined, prancing from hoof to hoof with a frantic expression. "I need Twilight!"

"Uh, she's over here, but instead of hitting the books like she usually does, _they_ decided to go and hit _her..._ again," Spike snorted, letting out a puff of black smoke before he jogged over to where his best friend was struggling to get out from underneath the pile of tomes. Once Twilight had been freed and she'd caught her breath, she shot Spike a grateful glance and started to open her mouth when she was tackled by Fluttershy.

"Twilight, you have to help me!" Fluttershy babbled softly, eyes huge as she stared at the wide-eyed unicorn who was pinned underneath her. "You have to help!"

"What can I do for you?" Twilight offered, staring up at the frazzled Pegasus pony with wary eyes.

"Oh, its just terrible!" Fluttershy quietly exclaimed, flapping into the air and pressing her hooves together in horror. "It's the most awful thing I've ever seen! A beautiful creature floated down from the sky in a beam of light, but it was injured so badly that I didn't know what to do! But then, right in front of me, the creature actually began to... uh, I don't know! It just started changing all of a sudden, and now there's a beautiful Earthland pony in its place! Only, she's really injured!"

"What?" Twilight gasped, rolling to her feet and staring up at Fluttershy in concern. "Where did this happen?"

"Just outside of Ponyville!" Fluttershy responded quietly, mouth trembling as she blinked a few times.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," the purple unicorn sighed, eyes becoming hard as she thought over her developing plan. "Pinkiepie, I want you to go tell Rarity and Applejack to meet us at the southern outskirts of Ponyville; Fluttershy, if you can do it, I'd like you to go find Rainbow Dash and tell her the same thing just in case we need a bit of firepower. Spike, grab a quill and a piece of parchment: we need to send word of this odd occurrence to Princess Celestia just in case these events lead to some sort of disaster we don't yet know about. Until then, we're going find out exactly what's going on. You guys got all that?"

"Yes," Pinkiepie, Fluttershy, and Spike all said simultaneously.

"Good," Twilight sighed, looking out the window with furrowed brows when the two ponies quickly left. "I just hope that whatever pony Fluttershy found isn't hostile."

"Maybe she's not," Spike stated unhelpfully, hopping onto her back and readily holding up his parchment; he looked up at her with expectant green eyes.

"Okay, okay, I get it," the unicorn sighed, rolling her eyes before she began to pace. "'Dear Princess Celestia... it has come to my attention that a very odd situation has presented itself to the Land of Equestria. As you probably know full well, I was studying my magic and practicing a few tough spells when the weather in Ponyville took a strange turn and an anomaly occurred in the epicenter of the brewing storm. My friend Fluttershy claims that an odd creature descended from the sky and somehow changed into an Earthland pony... and while I know that there's most likely nothing to worry about, I can't help but feel concerned. I myself saw a dark shadow descend from the pillar of light that rained down from the sky, but as of yet, I do not know what is going on. I thought you should know first. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.'"

"Yep, aaaand... got it," Spike sighed, rolling up the parchment and holding it up in his claw; taking a deep breath, the dragon let loose a gout of green fire and the letter vanished amongst a pillar of sparkles. "So, are we going to head to the outskirts of Ponyville now? It was your idea, anyway."

"Yes, I think it's time we get going," Twilight murmured, glancing at him with worried eyes. "Let's just hope this isn't another catastrophe waiting to strike."

**TXXXXXT**

"Applebloom!" Applejack scolded in her heavy southern accent, frowning down at her little sister when she huddled down with a guilty expression. "How many times have ah' told you not t' take somethin' without askin' permission first? That pie was fer Twilight since she's been strugglin' t' get a certain spell right fer a week now."

"Ah'm sorry, sis," Applebloom whined, ears drooping as she stared at the ground. "Ah didn't eat the pie, though, honest! Ah was just pickin' it up to bring it inside when that scary light in the sky showed up! I got so scared that I dropped it! Ah'm sorry!"

"It's not a problem, as long as ya accept the fact that ya made a mistake," the blonde pony sighed, cracking a little smile as she nudged her baby sister. "Come on, Applebloom, let's go bake another pie fer Twilight to munch on when she comes to visit us today."

"You'd better hurry up and bake it, then!" a familiar bubbly voice exclaimed from the barn roof; the country ponies jumped in startled surprise.

"Pinkiepie?" Applejack asked in disbelief, blinking her lime green eyes at the bouncing pony. "What in tarnation are you doin' up there?"

"Coming to get _you_ since Twilight wants us all to get together at the southern outskirts of Ponyville!" Pinkiepie exclaimed in a hyper tone, bouncing around the roof with a giddy smile and an excited demeanor. "Apparently there might be some sort of dangerous new adventure we're supposed to check out! Isn't this great?!"

"Uh, ah don't reckon so, unless you consider _danger_ to be a _fun_ thing," Applejack drawled, eyeing the pink pony with a blank expression before she turned to her little sister with a dismayed sigh. "Applebloom, ah'd mighty appreciate it if you'd go make Twilight's pie with Granny Smith or Big Macintosh... would ya, please?"

"Sure, sis," the redheaded pony sighed, smiling a little bit before she trotted off and went inside their home; once her little sister was out of earshot, Applejack looked up at Pinkiepie's bouncing form and cocked her head to the side with a worried expression.

"Ya know, I saw that light fer m'self when it came raining down from those clouds ten minutes ago," the country pony called, watching as Pinkiepie bounced off the roof and landed on the ground like a spring. "What do ya reckon is goin' on, Pinkiepie? Everypony in Ponyville saw that light descendin' from the sky."

"That's what we're trying to find out!" Pinkiepie happily squeaked, bouncing around the blonde pony before springing away. "Come on! Let's go get Rarity!"

"Fine, ah'm comin', Pinkie," Applejack sighed, rolling her eyes as she followed her bubbly friend with an uneasy expression. However, she wasn't really thinking about the anomaly that had occurred only a few minutes prior to Pinkiepie's arrival: she was worrying about the mess she knew she was about to return to since Applebloom was terrible at baking. The two ponies arrived at Rarity's shop with due haste, but upon entering they found the beautiful unicorn staring out the window.

"Rarity?" Applejack asked, trotting up to her and staring into her dazed, starstruck eyes. "Uh, Rarity, are you okay?"

"I simply don't believe it," the unicorn whispered in a dramatic voice, turning to look at Applejack with a trembling mouth. "I just saw something _prettier_ than _me!"_

"Ah reckon yer talkin' about that strange light?" Applejack deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

"Yes! It's the light that practically rained down from the heavens in a shower of golden sparkles!" Rarity exclaimed, theatrically throwing her foreleg across her head and sinking down to the floor. "I swear I saw an Angelpony descending from the sky amongst all those yucky black clouds! It was... it was just... so _gorgeous!"_

"Yup, and that's why we're here," Applejack drawled, green eyes becoming half-lidded with boredom. "Twilight wants us t' meet at the southern edge of Ponyville."

"We're going to meet the Angelpony?!" Rarity shrieked, batting her long eyelashes and clutching her muzzle with both hooves. "Oh, my! I simply _must_ look the part if I'm going to be competing with such a magnificent creature! Angelponies are said to be the most beautiful and rare beings in all of Equestria!"

"We don't have time fer you to make yerself look all prettified!" Applejack groaned.

"Especially since Fluttershy thinks the Angelpony has the the worstest injuries she's ever seen," Pinkiepie cheerfully added in; both ponies in the room blinked and stared at her in surprise, making her smile big and blink innocently. "What are you looking at? Is there a bit of leftover cake from today's party on my face?"

"No... but, what in the world do you mean, Pinkiepie?" Rarity asked, tossing her beautiful mane with an intrigued expression. "The Angelpony is... hurt?"

"Yep, that's what Fluttershy said," the bubbly pony brightly explained, not seeming to catch the severity of her own words. "The worstest out of all hurts!"

"Oh, dear," Rarity murmured, all of the drama gone in an instant. "Well, Applejack, it seems that you are correct for once: if there _is_ an injured Angelpony lying somewhere in Ponyville, there _isn't_ enough time to make myself look beautiful. It's such a shame, but injuries must always be put over my fashion sense."

"Good, now let's get goin'," Applejack huffed, hurrying out of the shop and leaving Pinkiepie behind with Rarity.

"She seems eager to meet the Angelpony," Pinkiepie exclaimed, bouncing towards the door with Rarity following close behind.

"Who wouldn't be, darling?" Rarity asked, glancing up when she saw a familiar blue Pegasus pony with a rainbow mane flying towards the southern forest. Fluttershy came into view soon afterwards, signalling that everyone was gathering.

"Ah... have a very strange feelin' in my gut right now," Applejack mumbled. "I dunno why, though..."

"Maybe you got a tummy ache!" Pinkiepie gasped, spinning around with wide eyes. "Do you need medicine?!"

"Naw, naw, it's not that kind of feelin'," Applejack hastily protested, waving her hoof to soothe the Pink One's fear. "I meant... I have an odd feelin' about that light."

"I can't speak for anyone else aside from yours truly," Rarity stated in her usual posh accent, "but I am quite inclined to agree: something feels very strange."

"Well, I'm experiencing a new combination of tingles, flutters, and twitches," Pinkiepie happily offered, turning around and staring at them as she bounced backwards with a huge grin. "Maybe something strange is about to happen to all of us! Ooh, the very thought is so exciting! I should throw a party!"

"Yeah, save that there party for later," Applejack sighed, peering around the trees and blinking when she saw that the rest of their friends were waiting patiently for them to arrive. "We're almost there, so I reckon we'll figure out what's really going on fairly soon."

When the ponies and the unicorn joined their other friends, Twilight looked around the group with apprehensive eyes before letting out a sigh.

"All right," the unicorn sighed, looking at her friends with worry. "Now that we're all here, I want to warn you that what we might see could be disturbing: as you all must be aware of by now, there was a strange anomaly that happened around here almost half an hour ago. Fluttershy says that there's a creature beyond this clearing who looks like a pony right now, but was something else a few minutes before it changed into one: we have to be ready for anything, so be careful."

"What did this here mystery Pony look like?" Applejack asked, glancing at Fluttershy with probing green eyes.

"Oh, um," the shiest of the six stammered awkwardly, twiddling her hooves. "Well, she was... the most beautiful pony I've ever seen, even injured."

"Really, now?" Rarity huffed, tilting her nose up a little. "I have yet to decide whether or not she's the most beautiful."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Rainbow dash scoffed, flapping a dismissive hoof. "When are we gonna go see this mystery pony?"

"Well, come on! Twilight's already moving!" Spike called, waving at the group from the unicorn's retreating back; the other five ponies hastily chased after her and clustered close together, eying the forest around them with apprehensive eyes. Fluttershy, surprisingly enough, hastily flew ahead and sped towards the spot the injured creature had landed upon, but she froze like a statue and plopped onto the ground when she saw that the injured Pony had regained its original form and was trying to crawl away. Fluttershy's eyes widened and her motherly instinct rose up with passion when she heard hysterical sobs coming from the creature.

The creature was struggling to get to the robes she had shed upon transforming into a Pony; however, she collapsed and clutched her stomach with a yelp.

"Oh! Don't move, it'll be okay!" Fluttershy called in a worried voice, flying over to the struggling creature; when the creature's head snapped up, the pony froze in midair and merely stared at its beautiful red-violet eyes and pale features. It's face was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, but undeniably majestic. However, the creature's eyes widened and it began to shake all over upon seeing her; Fluttershy once again tried to soothe the creature with soft words, but she was startled when the female animal burst into tears and covered her eyes. "Oh, please don't cry! I promise, little friend, everything will be okay! I'll make you all better!"

"This can't be real!" the creature cried, making Fluttershy's eyes widen in surprise: animals weren't supposed to talk. "How?! How did I get here?!"

"You floated down in a bunch of sparkling lights," the Pegasus pony soothingly explained, fluttering closer to the creature. "You're hurt, though."

"I... I..." the creature hiccuped, peering at Fluttershy through the digits extending from her hands. "Wait... I recognize you somehow..."

"What?" Fluttershy asked, blinking a few times in surprise as her friends came into the clearing.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, making the human girl _and_ the Pegasus pony jump in fright. "What the heck _is_ that thing?! That's _not_ a pony!"

"She was a pony when I left!" the pink-haired animal lover weakly protested, eyes watering. "This is what she looked like before she changed!"

"Oh... my... God..." the creature whispered, violet eyes widening as she stared at the group of ponies. "No way... this can't be happening."

"It can talk!" Pinkiepie squealed, bouncing over with a huge intake of air and goggling at the white-haired creature. "Hello! What can't be happening?"

"The fact that I'm in... Equestria," the creature whimpered, clutching her stomach with a grimace before she collapsed on her side. "Ow, ow, ow..."

"Oh, my..." Rarity gasped, eyeing the wounds on the creature's naked body with something akin to sheer horror. "My dear, you... are very badly hurt."

Before the creature could respond, a sparkling golden light exploded around her naked torso and she let out a shriek of alarm, startling the other ponies into jumping away from her: the creature sat up and stared at her furless limbs with horrified violet eyes, watching as they shifted and began to change. Before their very eyes, the creature shifted shape amongst the glittering light and became a beautiful white pony once again, making each of them stare at her in shock.

After the sparkling light faded, the pony blinked and stared at her new limbs with huge eyes; then, with a hysterical screech, she fainted dead away.

"Okay," Twilight whispered, staring at her friends and letting out a sigh when she saw six slack jaws. "Looks like we have a problem on our hands."


	3. Chapter 2: Birthday Crash

**Chapter Two: Birthday Crash**

Danielle's ears were ringing and she felt trapped in an impenetrable darkness: her violet eyes fluttered and she swallowed, head throbbing violently as she swam slowly into awareness and muffled voices began to clear in her ears. However, the void she was stuck in was spinning like a terrifying carnival ride, and it was making her feel sick. She had to open her eyes, otherwise the darkness would spiral up and swallow her again; she struggled as her stomach clenched, fought to tumble into the light from the spinning shadows inside her mind. With a jolt, her eyes flew open and she immediately began to cry, tears silently streaming down her cheeks and landing on the bouncing orange fur right in front of her face. It was around that moment that the muffled voices began to make sense and her hearing felt as though cotton had been pulled out of it. After a moment, she quickly became aware of everything else as consciousness started to descend on her.

"—but that's not what ah'm sayin', though, Twilight!" a familiar voice with a southern accent sighed, the sound of it vibrating her entire cheek. "Y'all saw how scared the poor gal looked when she turned into one of us, didn't ya? She's obviously just as clueless about what's going on as _we_ are, judging by her drastic reaction."

"That still doesn't explain why that _thing_ can _talk!"_ another familiar voice snapped, making Danni blink in dazed confusion: had she slept over at Lauren's house for a My Little Pony marathon and left the television on again? "It doesn't even tell us what the heck that weird-looking creature really _is!"_

"Well," a posh voice muttered disdainfully, sounding a tad bit jealous, "in pony form... she's... prettier than I am, so I say we leave her there!"

"Rarity, how could you even suggest such a terrible thing!" Twilight's voice exclaimed, sounding completely shocked. "No, we're not leaving her!"

"Lauren?" Danielle mewed contentedly, closing her violet eyes as she snuggled up against the swaying, warm, and utterly soft orange carpet in her best friend's bedroom. "What episode of my little Pony is that? It sounds really... interesting... I don't think I've seen it yet."

"See?" Applejack's voice sighed in a solemn tone. "You woke the poor thing up!"

"Lauren, what thing are they talking about?" Danielle mumbled sleepily without opening her eyes. "Is it another odd creature?"

"Uh, odd creature?" Spike's voice asked, sounding thoroughly confused. "Also, who's Lauren?"

Danielle frowned in confusion before her heart froze and her eyes snapped open wide in alarm: she stared hard at the orange fur in front of her with huge violet eyes, blood turning to ice when she remembered that her best friend had a green carpet in her bedroom. When Danni hesitantly lifted her head, she found herself staring straight into Applejack's beautiful lime green eyes. Danielle instantly shook her head and blinked rapidly to see if she was dreaming.

After a moment, terror swept through her body.

"Wha... I... how... you..." she tried to stammer, but only several unintelligible squeaks came out of her mouth.

"Is the thing stupid or something?" Rainbow Dash asked, staring at her as though she were an alien... which, in this place, she pretty much was.

"EEEEEYYAAAAAAAAAAH!" Danielle shrieked, flailing around and falling clean off of Applejack's back; the moment she landed, the albino girl tried to scramble away only to find that she couldn't stand up for some reason. Hyperventilating, the girl looked down at her arms only to find that they weren't arms any longer: they were hooves. Violet eyes going wide, the girl lifted her left fore-hoof and brushed her white hair over her shoulder, frantically trying to look at it. Her hair was pretty much the same in texture, color, and gloss... but now it was stretching out of a mane. She looked up to find all six of her favorite ponies staring at her in alarm.

Instantly covering her eyes with her snow white hooves, the girl-turned-pony began to cry.

"Oh, shoot," Applejack mumbled, frowning deeply before glaring at Dash. "Sugar Cube, are you all right? You didn't get hurt again, now, did ya?"

"Why am I a pony?!" Danielle wailed, uncovering her eyes and flailing her forelegs around at an impossible speed. "EEK! How did I do that?!"

"How did you do what? Freak out?" Rainbow Dash asked, cocking her head with a frown. "That's an easy one: all you gotta do is _freak out."_

"No, I mean how did I just wave my arms a mile a minute like a cartoon character!" Danni shrieked, shivering all over as she plopped her hooves between her awkwardly spread legs; after a moment, she continued bawling and lowered her head, shimmering white mane covering her elongated face. "Why did this happen to me?! It's supposed to be my birthday today, so why did all of this stuff happen?! What in the world is going on?! How am _I_ a pony in the world of _My Little Pony_?!"

"BIRTHDAY?!" Pinkiepie squealed, bouncing forward and eyeballing the albino mare with an insane amount of glee. "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY?!"

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-yes," Danielle squeaked, falling on her back and staring at the intense pink pony with her hooves close together. Pinkiepie did nothing but gasp in a psychotic way, but her friends rolled their eyes when she disappeared with a pink trail streaming behind her. Danielle merely blinked after the crazy pony, causing liquid tears to drop onto the sweet-smelling grass around her. "What in the world is going on...? This place... it doesn't feel like a dream, but how am I here?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out, too," Twilight Sparkle sighed, moving forward and looking down at her in concern; however, the moment Danielle saw Spike peering at her from atop the unicorn's head with the curious green eyes she loved so much, Danielle's violet eyes went wide and her heart thumped.

"No way," she whispered, slowly sitting up and staring at the dragon. "No way! Um, Twilight, c-can I... um, can I please hug Spike?! Pretty please?"

"Huh?" the unicorn whispered, eyes going wide. "Wait, how did you know my name? No, actually, how did you know _Spike's_ name?!"

"I know everyone's name!" Danielle squeaked, looking down and staring into the unicorn's dumbstruck eyes. "In fact, I know about everything you guys have ever done! I was watching you all along! I mean, from the moment you discovered Nightmare Moon's return up until now, I've been watching everything you've experienced together as friends! All the lessons you learned... they gave me enough hope to keep on living!"

"Keep on living?" Rarity asked in a condescending tone, nosing her way past Twilight and staring down at her. "Darling, whatever do you mean by that? We ponies here in Equestria can never die, so there's no point in having hope to keep on _living_ since we'll live forever anyway!"

"I'm not a pony, though... in fact, I'm not even from Equestria," Danielle reluctantly whispered, throat locking up when Rarity blinked down at her. "You see... I, uh, actually... I, um... oh, uh, well... never mind. It's really not all that important, anyway, and now that I think about it... I don't want to bring it up all that much."

"Tell us, please?" Twilight pleaded, sitting down next to Danni with her legs folded up. "We want to know everything that happened to you."

"I... I... I..." Danielle stammered weakly, lowering her head in fright. "Well, I... I think I may have died once already."

Every single pony's eyes went wide, and they stared at her with mixed emotions on their faces: Twilight looked dumbstruck, horrified, and utterly sympathetic because of what she'd just heard, Applejack looked as though she were about to faint, Fluttershy had plopped to the ground and was crying quietly over her heart-wrenching claim, Rainbow Dash looked skeptical and a little unnerved by the statement, and Rarity simply huddled down a bit with a slight wince.

"How?" Applejack asked, moving forward and staring at her with large eyes. "How... and why... do you think you died?"

"Yes, do tell," Rarity asked smoothly, although her snooty expression was faltering quite a bit now. "What was dying like?"

"Painful," Danielle whispered, lowering her head again and subconsciously clutching her stomach with both hands. _"Very_ painful..."

"R-really now?" Rarity continued, face twitching with a bit of reluctant guilt. "I see."

"So, you don't know what happened to you after all that?" Twilight asked, not noticing when Spike hopped off her back. "You don't remember?"

"All I remember is... dying, and waking up _here_ completely naked," Danni replied, looking up at her with miserable eyes.

"Well, if you died at whatever place you came from and somehow ended up here," Rainbow Dash sighed, rolling her eyes, "doesn't that mean you're in heaven?"

"Wait, what?" Danni asked, eyes popping open wide as the realization seared through her. "You mean, Equestria might be heaven for me?"

"Who knows?" Spike murmured dazedly, staring up at her pretty face with an expression of awed fascination; Twilight glanced at him in total surprise, noticing that he had the same expression on his face as the one when he'd first met Rarity. She immediately rolled her eyes with a groan, knowing he was probably already developing a crush: the little guy couldn't help but admire pretty girls, and she had to admit... this new pony was definitely pretty, all things considered.

"Wow," Danielle mewed in amazement, looking at the purple baby dragon with wistful violet eyes. "I've always wanted to meet you, Spike, but I grew up thinking you and your friends weren't real because... well, where I come from, you're actually not real at all. That's why I think this is so cool!"

"Wait, you've always wanted to meet... _me?" _the dragon asked, blinking his catlike green eyes in amazement. "Why would you wanna do that?"

"Well, why not?" Danielle happily gushed, leaning close with sparkling violet eyes. "You're helpful even when you make a mistake, you're Twilight's unofficial little brother, you're just like _me_ since everyone back never took me seriously, and the way you jog around with your little chest puffed out is just so _cute!"_

_"_Uh, do I still walk like that?" Spike asked, glancing at Twilight in total confusion; the purple unicorn merely fought back a giggle and nodded in amusement.

"On top of that," Danielle murmured a little more softly, glancing right up at Applejack, who blinked and cocked her head, "the second person I've always wanted to meet is Applejack... simply because she's exactly like my best friend in the world, Lauren, and I've _always_ admired the way she gets the tough things done."

"Oh?" the orange mare asked, cocking her head the other way and staring with perplexed green eyes. "How am ah like this 'Lauren' of yours?"

"For one thing," Danni giggled, violet eyes sparkling as she pressed her white hooves together, "she has a southern accent just like yours, she has blonde hair, she has bright green eyes, and she's the most honest and dependable person I've ever known! She's always taken care of me like a little sister, and I... and I..."

Without warning, tears started streaming from Danielle's eyes and her smile broke as her expression went blank.

"Wh-what's wrong, Sugar Cube?!" Applejack squawked, zipping over with a frantic expression on her face. "Ah didn't make ya cry, did ah?!"

"No... not you... but, if... if I really _did_ die," Danni squealed in horror, rubbing her streaming eyes to no avail, "I'll never see anyone from home ever again!"

"Oh, sweetheart," Rarity murmured, slowly clopping up and curling around her crying form. "Don't cry... shhh... everything will be all right."

"How, Rarity?" Danni whined, hiccuping as she fought to stop crying. "How will anything be okay? I died on my birthday!"

"From what I can see, you're very much alive, darling," Rarity stated sternly, eyeing her silvery mane and the already-healing injuries on her body; without another word, Danielle buried her muzzle in the beautiful mare's neck and began to cry; Rarity merely sighed and looked at her friends, who were staring at her as though she'd grown another head. "What? Excuse _me,_ but I _can_ be kind to someone when the need _calls_ for it, and I'd say this is one of the most _important_ needy callings."

"Uh, if ya say so," Applejack snorted, cocking an eyebrow when Rarity glared.

"Um, sorry if I'm prying," Twilight finally stated, catching Danni's attention, "but... what's your name and where exactly are you from?"

"My name is Danielle Evergreen," Danni mumbled unhappily, shaking her mane out of her streaming eyes. "And... I used to live on a planet called Earth."

"Earth?!" Twilight gasped, purple eyes widening in shock. "That's right! I totally forgot about the tomes I've read on Humanity! You're... a human being!"

"Uh, wasn't that obvious from the start?" Danielle asked, blinking her violet eyes in surprise. "I mean, I... I'm still kind of freaking out over being a _pony."_

"Well, that sort of clears a few things up," Twilight sighed, looking extremely relieved. "Girls, Danielle is a _human!_ She is _definitely_ not dangerous! "

"Yup, like ah said from the start," Applejack added, frowning at her. "She didn't have the look of a bad pony."

"Well, she still seems kinda freaky to me," Rainbow Dash muttered, rolling her eyes. "So, if I'm not needed here anymore, I'm gonna finish flying. Later!"

Danielle covered her eyes when the Pegasus pony disappeared in a flash of multicolored light: she had flown away at warp speed.

"Hey, Twilight," Spike piped up, tugging on the unicorn's violet mane. "Where's Danielle gonna stay? If she just arrived all alone, where can she go?"

"Oh, that isn't a problem," Twilight giggled, glancing at the dragon in amusement. "We have a spare bedroom in my tree, remember? I'm sure Princess Celestia wouldn't mind at all, considering Danielle didn't come here on purpose. However, she'll probably be staying for a long time, so we should make her comfortable."

"You'd do that for me?" Danielle asked, looking at Twilight Sparkle with shimmering violet eyes. "You'd... really let me stay with you?"

"Of course she would!" Spike replied, eyes going half-lidded with a goofy grin as he stared at her. "If I'm really as nice as you think, it's because she raised me."

"Thank you so much," Danielle whispered, smiling for the first time she'd arrived; everyone stared at her in surprise when her reddish-violet eyes took on a beautiful iridescent blue sheen and seemed to sparkle with emotion. However, as she stood up, Rarity happened to notice something incredible.

"Oh, dear!" she gasped, eyes going wide. "Danielle, you don't have a cutie mark!"

"Huh?" Danni asked, awkwardly shifting her head around and staring at her flank. "Oh... uh, maybe its just because I arrived from a place that doesn't need them."

"Really?" Rarity asked, posh accent sounding absolutely stunned.

"Yeah," Danielle confirmed, nodding her head. "On earth, people have multiple things that they're good at, not just one."

"Sounds hectic," Fluttershy murmured, speaking up for the first time in forever.

"It kind of is," Danni agreed, shaking her head with a soft smile before she turned to Rarity and bit her lip. "Hey... Rarity? You really are pretty, and... well, do you wanna hang out sometime? Maybe, um, get together? Or maybe you could teach me how to design beautiful dresses!"

"Uh, well," the unicorn stammered, smiling a little awkwardly before she noticed the naive look in Danni's eyes. "Well, all right, but not today."

"Okay," Danielle agreed, smiling exuberantly before she glanced at Applejack and smiled. "It was nice meeting you for real, AJ! See you around?"

"Of course, darlin'," Applejack snorted, smirking a little before she glanced at Fluttershy, who was staring hopefully at Danni. "In fact, Fluttershy here had plans to get together with me tomorrow afternoon, so you're welcome to join us if you'd like!"

"Really?!" Danni squeaked, jumping up and down like Pinkiepie before she wheezed and collapsed from the pain in her stomach. "Ow..."

"Oh, you mustn't overexert yourself!" Fluttershy worriedly chided, flying over and touching her arm. "Please, be careful!"

"I'll... try," Danni mewed, opening her watering eyes.

"Well, it's been fun, but I believe I have some dresses to finish up for a few clientele," Rarity stated regally, tossing her mane and plodding down the road with Applejack and Fluttershy in tow. "I'll let you handle it from here, Twilight: take care of our new acquaintance, you hear?"

Twilight merely rolled her eyes and looked at Danni's dazed violet eyes with a curious expression; she shared a confused glance with Spike, who shrugged, before plodding over and nudging the albino mare with her head.

"Huh?" Danni murmured softly, glancing at Twilight's large eyes with a vacant expression. "Oh, hi Twilight... this feels like a beautiful dream."

"A beautiful dream?" the unicorn asked, cocking her head to the side with a sincere amount of curiosity. "What do you mean by that?"

"I... I'm happier right now than I've ever been in my entire life," Danni quietly explained, smiling even as more tears slid down her furry cheeks. "Even if I'm a pony with bruises all over my body and cuts that might scar me up, I'm happy. I'm here, but I feel like I... that this is... that I'm just... ugh, I _feel_ like I'm _home_!_"_

"You've been through a lot of sadness," Twilight noted, cocking an eyebrow before she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, come on! I'll show you to the treehouse!"

"I can't wait to see your study in person!" Danni squeaked, attempting to plop forward with her front feet only to fall flat on her face. "Oof! Ow, that hurt!"

"What happened?" Spike asked, staring back at her in surprise.

"I guess I'm just not used to walking on four legs yet?" Danielle proffered, lifting her head and staring through her disheveled white mane.

"Oh," Twilight giggled, nervously staring up at the sky. "Oops... sorry, that was my lack of judgement. All right, all you have to do to walk like us is _this."_

"Okay," Danielle murmured, watching as she gave a simple demonstration and helped the albino mare up; after she was on her hooves, Twilight stepped back and watched as the girl-turned-pony wobbled forward like a newborn colt, but she was walking and that was the only thing that mattered. "Yay! I'm doing it!"

"Good job!" Spike exclaimed, clapping his scaled claws together with infatuated green eyes.

"All right, do you think you can make it to my house now?" Twilight asked, smiling broadly at her success. "It's not very far from here!"

"I... I'll try my best!" Danni promptly exclaimed, saluting the unicorn with a huge smile; they eventually made it to Twilight Sparkle's home, but once they were inside, Danielle Evergreen was dumbstruck by everything she saw. Just like in the television show, the entire main room was shrouded with books, and the staircase leading up to the three bedrooms and bathroom were strewn with them. "Oh, wow! I'm really in Twilight's study! Eek, you have so many awesome books!"

"You like to read?" Twilight asked in surprise, eyeing Danni when she stumbled over to the shelves and eagerly read the covers.

"Of course I do!" the albino exclaimed, glancing at her with sparkling eyes. "There are completely different worlds written in books, worlds of fantasy and worlds that have long since passed us by! I think that the most most amazing thing in the entire universe is actually the book, because an author can be remembered for thousands of years after they pass away! I love reading stories because the creator _made_ them using nothing but paper, a pen, and their imaginative heart."

"Wow," Twilight murmured, glancing at Spike to see that his mouth was hanging open. "I'm kind of surprised that I actually agree with everything you said."

"Oh, wow!" Danni gasped, looking at a particular tome with fascinated eyes. "You have books on mythology that I never would have _dreamed_ of!"

"Yeah, these are the best of my entire collection!" the unicorn gushed, happily walking over and pointing at another book with her hoof. "Still, if you like reading about mythology, I suggest that one: I never get tired of reading it, and the creatures inside are absolutely fantastic! The author even drew _sketches_ of them!"

"Wait, you mean I'm allowed to read your books?" Danielle whispered, staring at her in surprise. "I... I don't know what to say! Thank you!"

"No worries!" Twilight giggled awkwardly, flapping a dismissive hoof. "Actually, I think it's nice that _finally_ I found someone else who likes to read books!"

"Like?" Danni laughed, squeezing her eyes shut in glee. "It's more like LOVE! Reading books and writing stories are my two favorite hobbies!"

"Really?!" Twilight squealed, looking extremely excited. "Wow, I can't believe I have a friend I can completely relate to about books! This is fantastic!"

"Yay, another bookworm," Spike sighed dreamily, planting his chin in his claws as he stared at Danni; the statement earned himself a warning look from Twilight.

"Wait, did you just say f-friend?" Danielle squeaked, legs buckling due to her extreme surprise. "You mean, I'm your... friend?

"Yeah," Twilight replied, blinking a few times in confusion. "What did you think we were?"

"I didn't think we were that close already!" Danni exclaimed, smiling so broadly that Twilight sighed in relief. "Wow! This is so cool! I'm so freaking happy!"

"Well, then let me show you to your new room!" the unicorn happily exclaimed, feeling extremely optimistic; however, only a few seconds after Danielle made it to the top of the stairs, a small golden light twinkled out of her flank and she let out a gasp when she glanced at it; Twilight was at her side in seconds. "What is it, Danielle? Why did you gasp like that, and why did you stop walking all of a sudden? What are you looking at? Oh... oh, dear... that's a very odd cutie mark."

_"That's_ my _cutie mark?"_ Danielle squeaked, feeling horrified by what she was looking at. "It's not cutie at all! It's creepy!"

"What are you girls talking about?" Spike muttered, moving forward and eyeing her flank. "Oh... uh, yeah, it's kind of creepy, but what does it represent?"

"I don't know," Twilight admitted, eying the strange symbol with a curious expression. Danielle's cutie mark was very odd indeed: at the top right corner, there was a beautiful sun that shone down on a green field where a white-maned pony with large violet eyes was gazing up at the sky and smiling; at the bottom left corner, a haunting moon was shining upon the exact same field, and a human girl with long white hair was staring at the ground with tears cascading from her violet eyes.

The entire mark was ensnared by a circle: stretching along the point where the day and night seemed to mesh was an ominous glass-like crack.

"It..." Danielle whispered, eyebrows shooting up. "The pony in the daytime field looks like me right _now..._ but the nighttime part looks like my human self."

"Huh?" Spike asked, glancing up at her in surprise. "Well, you _did_ change from a... uh, _human_ into a pony earlier... so, what if..."

"What if you're a pony during the day, and human by night?" Twilight finished, eyebrows shooting up in shock. "Uh, oh... that could be a problem."

"Well, even if I do turn back into a human, it won't be a bad thing, right?" Danielle laughed, smiling at Twilight with sparkling eyes. "Either way, human or pony, I'm still me and my personality won't change. Or, at least I don't _think_ it won't... but still, we'll see what happens when night falls later on."

"You're right," Twilight sighed, leading her into the spare room and showing her around. "Anyway, do you like it?"

"Twilight, it's awesome," Danni murmured softly, glancing at the Pony with shy violet eyes. "Thank you for everything you've done. You're my heroine."

"Aw, it's nothing," the unicorn chuckled, blushing awkwardly from the praise. "Anyway, Spike was just about to put your human clothes away, so after he's done... do you want me to give you a tour of Ponyville?"

"Would I _ever?!"_ Danielle shrieked, jumping up and down with a giddy expression until the pain in her belly and back forced her to quit. "Ow... I need to stop that."

"Careful," Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes in amusement; Spike had already climbed off of her back and was reverently putting Danni's clothes onto one of the shelves using a ladder that had been resting against the wall. Once he was done, he climbed back down and waddled back over to Twilight with his skinny little arms in a jogging pose, making Danni's eyes shine with utter adoration.

"Oh, my god," she whined in a strangled voice, flapping her pony forelegs in glee when she was next to Twilight again. "His little walk is so cute!"

"I know," Twilight agreed in a secretive voice, giggling quietly when the dragon blinked at them in confusion. "He's the best assistant ever, but he's an even better little brother: Spike is the one of most reliable and cutest people you'll ever meet in Equestria, so if you have any questions... ask him. He'd LOVE to help you."

"What are you two giggling about?" Spike asked, furrowing his brows with a pout when the two of them glanced back and giggled loudly. "Ugh, girls are weird..."

Ten minutes later, Twilight had pretty much shown Danni everything there was to see in Ponyville aside from the cake shop. However, the moment Danielle clopped inside the bakery and the two of them saw that everything was dark, all hell broke loose soon afterwards. With a blinding flash that left Danni partially blinded, Pinkiepie flipped on the lights and nearly sixty people yelled "SURPRISE!" at the same time. However, the albino mare's reaction wasn't something anypony was used to seeing: she immediately shrieked and flopped down to the ground, covering her head as her entire body shook violently with a case of the shivers.

"Aw, she's just like Fluttershy!" someone in the crowd laughed, sending a fit of laughter through everyone. Twilight, however, was the only one who could see Danielle's violet eyes: they were wide and blank with tears brimming over the edges of her eyelids, but she had a look of such sheer terror on her face that the unicorn immediately frowned in worry: somehow, she instinctively knew that the girl's reaction to being startled wasn't exactly normal... even for a human being.

_Her expression isn't similar to any of Fluttershy's, not even during the times when she's startled by someone,_ Twilight silently noticed, watching with confused and curious indigo eyes as Pinkiepie bounced over and excitedly began gushing about the party she'd created since it was her birthday. Danni slowly got up and fought to smile at the bubbly pink pony, but the unicorn immediately noticed that all four of her legs were shaking involuntarily. _She was... actually very scared. Odd._

Twilight kept a closer eye on Danielle Evergreen as the albino mare slowly calmed down and began to enjoy herself again. However, when the sun was setting and people began to depart with well-wishings and pleasantries to the new arrival to Ponyville, the unicorn decided to call it a night. Pinkiepie was gushing to Gummy—a toothless alligator who'd nearly scared the bajeezus out of Danielle when she'd sat down earlier—about her first party ever while Danni gazed out the window.

Since Spike was already asleep on her purple back, Twilight made her way over to the albino girl-turned-mare.

"Hey, Danielle?" the unicorn murmured, catching the beautiful pony's attention. "Do you want to head home with me, or do you want to spend more time here?"

"I'm kind of tired so I think we should go home," the albino murmured weakly, giving a smile that didn't exactly reassure her new friend. "Plus... nighttime?"

"Ooh! I love your new cutie mark!" Pinkiepie called, bouncing over and happily looking at Danni's flank. "It's so unique! I've never seen such a detailed one!"

"Yeah, thanks," Danielle murmured weakly, trying to smile and failing at it: Twilight frowned when she noticed how exhausted the Earthland pony really looked.

"All right, let's get you home," the unicorn sighed, nudging Danni's flank to get her going. "Pinkiepie, thanks for giving Danielle a birthday party."

"Well, actually..." Danielle whispered, looking at the bubbly pony over her shoulder, "this was the first party I've ever had in general, birthday or not"

Pinkiepie gasped in horror and pressed her front hooves against her cheeks.

"This was your FIRST?!" she squealed, giving the albino such a huge grin that it was slightly alarming. "I'M GONNA THROW YOU LOTS AND LOTS OF PARTIES!"

"I look forward to it," Danielle murmured softly, smiling weakly before she followed Twilight out the door; the walk back to her new home didn't take very long at all, but by the time the three companions walked through the front door, Danni was ready to drop. Twilight moved over to the window and glanced at the ponies who were heading home before she glanced at Danielle with apprehensive eyes, biting her lip. After a moment, however, Twilight Sparkle jumped in surprise and shut the curtains with her teeth before she started looking around for something; Spike startled himself awake and fell off her back, looking around with dazed eyes.

"Oh, shoot... I forgot to grab Danielle some blankets," Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes before glancing at Spike. "Wait right here, you… two…?"

The last few rays of sunlight disappeared completely as she was speaking and the life-giving star sank below the mountains: the study was slowly engulfed in darkness, noticeably making the room almost completely black because the blinds were drawn. Twilight Sparkle trailed off as she looked first at the window, then at the doorways in alarm: Danielle blinked and looked around as sparkling golden tendrils of light began trailing into the pony's house, moving in swirling streams that seemed to shift like mist. The room was suddenly filled with a sparkling golden glow as an unfamiliar sensation of power flickered up inside Danielle's new body: her silvery white fur began to glow as the glittering streams of mist-like luminescence slowly encircled her horse-like frame. Twilight's eyes widened when she noticed the trails of light were moving on their own... almost as though they were beings capable of conscious thought.

Danni's large violet eyes locked on a tendril that stopped in front of her face, eyes becoming ever larger when they began forming a claw-like hand made of shimmering luminescence. The albino slowly started backing away, but she clumsily tripped over her own hooves and huddled down against the floor as her pupils dilated in fright: she glanced at Twilight's entranced expression and Spike's enormous green eyes before she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

She had a feeling that this was not going to be pleasant…

Danielle involuntarily gasped when the glowing hand suddenly surged forward like with fierce wind that shredded deep into her mouth and stole her breath: it roared down the pony's throat, causing her to involuntarily arch her back as an unexpected pain seared throughout her veins and began altering her body. The sound of a pained, ghostly whinny echoed around the walls as a roaring wind ripped throughout the tree house, knocking Spike clean off his feet and causing Twilight to stagger into a side-table; the unicorn's pupils dilated when a human girl's ghostly, yet very familiar voice joined in with a high-pitched scream of pain.

It was Danielle's original voice... it was mixing together with her new one in disembodied harmony.

Danni's terrified eyes snapped open wide and a soundless scream of agony escaped her voiceless lungs as her violet irises exploded with golden light: Twilight gasped, cowering against the floor as the Earthland pony was lifted off the ground and held suspended in the air. She watched as the bones in Danielle's limbs, skull, back, and spine snapped themselves in multiple places and began to shift to humanistic proportions. Once the light, wind, and frightening sounds had gone dark and the girl was kneeling on all fours with her thigh-length hair concealing her nudity, Danni crawled over to the wall with a whine of pain and glanced up at her friends. Spike was staring at her with an open mouth and his green eyes were wide: she waved at him with a timid grin, but the girl jumped nearly a foot into the air when he unexpectedly pointed at her, started laughing hysterically for a few brief moments, and dropped backwards onto the floor in a dead faint with a soft thud.

_"_What just happened?" Danielle croaked out, looking into Twilight's large eyes. "Did Spike just experience a girly moment, or was it a psychological overload?"

Twilight blinked twice in a row before she bit her lip and giggled; then she came over to Danni's much smaller side and nudged her shoulder in answer.

"Maybe both, but he took it well," the unicorn admitted, glancing at the unconscious dragon. "Even if he didn't, he'll be alright after a good night's sleep on the floor."

_Yep, Twilight, he took it well all right, _Danielle agreed, nodding in rusty amusement. _He fainted dead away._

"Well, you should probably head to bed since you're going to have a long day tomorrow. Plus... whatever it was that just happened looked painful," Twilight sighed, looking at Danni's human body in fascination before she nuzzled the albino girl's smooth cheek; then she eyed Danni's soft white hair before inspecting the girl's small back and eyeing her slender legs. Danielle blinked with furrowed brows when Twilight's horn began to glow and she pulled a quill and some parchment over.

"What are you doing?" Danielle asked, trying to see what she was writing.

"Taking notes on what you really look like," Twilight murmured absently, nosing her long hair aside and examining her anatomy with her magic. "I think it'll be crucial to start taking notes about your true race just in case we find a way to send you back home... that is, if you ever want to _go_ back home."

"Well, the notes I can agree with," Danni sighed in dismay, expression becoming extremely reserved for reasons that Twilight didn't understand. "However, unless you can find a way to allow me to come back here afterwards, I'll never go back home even if it's possible."

"Really?! But, w-why?" Twilight exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "I thought going home was what you really wanted!"

"You were wrong," Danielle mumbled, sinking down to the floor and staring at the wall with sorrowful eyes.

"Well," Twilight murmured, looking at Spike's already snoring form as she tried to think of a way to get off of the grim subject. "Hey! You know what? I think Spike is developing a crush on you... I don't know why, but he's always liked Rarity for some reason. She's almost always doting on him and making little comments that keeps him guessing, but I think she just likes the attention. Still, he was actually kind of surprised when you praised him. Be careful or he'll really _fall_ for you."

"Well, actually... if I'm going to be honest with you, I wouldn't be too opposed to that," Danni mumbled awkwardly, fiddling with a strand of silver hair when Twilight stared at her with an open mouth. "I... I actually like him a lot more than I mentioned earlier, Twilight... a lot more. In fact, my best friend Lauren once said that I was totally nuts because I actually fell for a cartoon character... especially a baby dragon. Lauren was joking at the time, so she didn't know she was actually _right._"

"Wait, what?" Twilight whispered, blinking rapidly before she shook her head. "You mean... you've already fallen for him? In a day? And what's a cartoon?"

"Well, I've... known Spike a lot longer than a day," Danni laughed, glancing at her with soft violet eyes. "He's just never known me."

"I don't understand," Twilight sighed in exasperation, but she paused when the albino girl put a hand on her shoulder.

"I've also known you and your friends," Danielle murmured, looking up at the ceiling with a half smile. "You don't like it when things don't make sense, so I'll try to explain how I know everything I do. First, I need to make a few things clear to you about who I am and where I come from. As you know, I come from a place called Earth, but there are millions of things that you don't understand about my world. Where I come from, people have belongings called televisions and they use them to view… well, we call them television shows and movies, but they're really just beautiful creations that people in _this_ place would probably call '_plays'." _

_"_You mean like the play we put on when we were acting out Equestria's origins?" Twilight asked in baffled surprise.

"Yes, exactly like that!" Danielle exclaimed, nodding fervently before she paused. "Only, they have objects that document movies so people can view them over and over again without actually forcing the same people to do everything a second time. No... a better way to put it would be like taking a visual note: you record everything down, but instead of reading it, you watch it. I know what all of you have been through because in my time, everything you and your friends have gone through together has already been documented in a cartoon television show called _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic_. You're all my greatest heroes."

"Wow..." Twilight whispered, looking hungry for more information on her world yet reluctant to press her anymore. "Well, I hope you can tell me more sometime."

"If you're ever curious, just be straightforward and ask me," Danni giggled, slowly standing up and holding out her hand. "I'll answer your question the best I can."

Thus, Twilight Sparkle took the hand of the first human she'd ever met and the two of them went upstairs—but not, however, before putting spike in his bed.


	4. Chapter 3: Life After Death

**Chapter Three: Life After Death**

_With a deafening rush of air, darkness engulfed Danielle's body and her silver hair was tossed around for several moments; when the world came into focus once more, however, she found herself floating in front of her old home. What met her eyes when she arrived wasn't what she had expected at all: a mass of people wearing black were hovering around and inside her house. As she stared around the group, she saw that most of the teenagers were laughing and joking in the backyard—which made her anger twinge. Oddly enough, though, Lauren wasn't even in the crowd. Danni descended to the ground and walked into the house, unseen among the people milling around. Walking into the living room, she saw her twin brother sitting against the wall with a vacant-eyed expression as people took turns kneeling down in front of him. _

_With shaky movements, she turned around and padded over to the coffin in the dining room: white flowers had been placed around a black and white picture of her, one that had been taken just as she was walking out of her old private school. She had turned around to see who was calling her name when the person had taken her picture. She'd been angry at first, but when she'd seen how it had turned out later on she'd felt amazed: the look on her face had been incredible—not really smiling or scowling, just a simple look of intense curiosity mixed with an expression of innocence that was rarely seen on her face. The pose of her body and the shape of her long white hair swirling around her frame had been perfect. Feeling ill, Danni turned away and soared outside, hovering and watching her classmates laugh in the backyard._

_"Just like I thought, they're all laughing," she muttered, clenching her fists. "They probably came here for the free food..."_

_"Lauren, please!" a woman suddenly exclaimed from the doorway, catching her attention: a tall blonde girl with braided hair and bright green eyes was struggling to make her way outside, but an elderly women was frantically holding her back. "Don't leave Danni's funeral just yet, please! She was your best friend, so you should at least say something nice to her brother before you go back home!"_

_Danielle's eyes widened and she fell to the ground, landing hard on her backside without feeling it. She watched as Lauren stopped struggling and just stood there for a long moment, head hanging limply and braids dangling as he stared at the ground. Then, the blonde girl slowly brought her arms up to her head and tilted it back before screaming as loud as he could. Danni flinched when the high-pitched sound ripped the air and her best friend collapsed to all fours, crying and screaming her name as she started beating the ground. The woman placed her arms around the freckled girl's shoulders, also starting to cry as she held her close. The woman closed her amber eyes as she held her granddaughter, rocking her back and forth as people looked on sadly. Danielle trembled as Lauren continued to cry, screaming her name until her throat sounded raw and her southern accent was unintelligible; through it all, the girl clutched her chest—almost as though she were in a severe amount of physical pain. _

_"No! Stop! You can't do this, it's not right!" a familiar girl's voice suddenly cried, breaking though Lauren's screaming sobs and making Danielle's eyes go wide in shock; she turned around and stared in disbelief when another familiar voice broke the stillness._

_"Let me go! Let me go! ARGH!" Mizuru Matsushida, who was actually one of Danni's worst tormenters at school, shrieked hysterically; she was literally dragging two other teenagers behind her as she struggled toward the house. "Get off me! GET OFF, DAMMIT!"_

_"No way!" Danni scoffed, staring at the girl in shock as she struggled into the yard and up to the door. _

_"Damn you, Danielle!" the Asian girl shrieked, struggling to get inside the house. "You think you can just back down when things are starting to look up for me?! You really are a cold-blooded bitch! How could you do this to me?! I was going to apologize to you today! I was going to say I was sorry for everything and ask if you could be my first real friend! Stupid! You stupid, idiotic Bitch! Why did he do something like that to you?!"_

_"Mizuru, this place is for mourning," the girl holding her left arm whined as she was dragged past Danni's brother, looking around at all of the staring people with huge blue eyes. "Stop it, please! This isn't right!"_

_"I'm not gonna leave!" Mizuru cried, gritting her teeth as she struggled toward the coffin. "I won't! Not until I can tell her I'm sorry or until she forgives me for what I did! I was so bitchy because of how unique she looks that I never even noticed what was going on! Danielle Evergreen, I know you're here so stop joking around! Get your ass out here and tell me you forgive me! Where the hell are you?! This funeral is a hoax!"_

_"It's not a hoax, and she can't do that!" the boy holding her right arm groaned. "She can't forgive you now! Don't you get it?! She's dead!"_

_"NO!" Mizuru shrieked, bursting into tears as she collapsed to her knees in front of the coffin. "How could you do this to me, Danni?! I was sorry, you little bitch! I felt sorry for someone other than myself for the first time in my life! And the one time I wanted to apologize for something I did to someone else, I can't even get the chance because you got yourself killed! You made me a bad person forever! WHY?! WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?!" _

_"Let's go!" the boy holding her arm finally snapped in anger, violently dragging her away with the other girl's help. _

_"NO!" Mizuru wailed, struggling as she was pulled out of the house. "No! NO! Let go! Danielle! DANIEEEEHEHEHELLLE!"_

_"Sorry for all… that," the girl said with a strained smile as she dragged her screaming and crying friend away. Danni watched them go with a hollow feeling in her chest, clutching at her blazer with both hands. _

_"Who would have… guessed…" she whispered hoarsely, shaking her head as she gazed after them._

_"Did you see those scumbags?" a man's voice sneered behind her, making her go rigid. Danni whirled around and saw two of her professors. _

_"They're probably the losers Evergreen hung out with," the first man sneered, waving his hand. "Too bad her dad didn't get them, too, eh?"_

_"Now, now, don't say that!" the second man said in a mocking voice. "After a life of being completely worthless in her studies, the Evergreen brat actually did something to give our school a good reputation! We should be glad that her father killed her!"_

_"Well, between you and me, Mr. Hakizawa, I'd say Evergreen probably deserved it!" Takamoto snickered, patting the man on the back. "She probably got stabbed through the stomach while she was trying to hit her father for not letting her go to the mall or something." _

_"Ha! I wouldn't be surprised by that one little bit, Mr. Takamoto," Hakizawa laughed; Danni clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut in a rage before her hand twitched out to the man's face. Just as she was wishing she could punch the two of them in the face, a set of large fists clamped down on their shoulders from behind; Danni blinked as the two men were jerked around and pulled into the face of her Headmaster._

_"What do you think is more disgraceful?" the big man asked dangerously, glaring at his two professors. "Those girls over there who're screaming and crying out of sheer misery from losing a close friend, or your insulting words about a girl who lost her life because her father was an incompetent drunk?"_

_"Headmaster…" Danni whispered in awe, watching as the man shoved them back and made his way into the house. Feeling curious despite herself, she followed him inside and watched as he knelt before her mother. Then he did something that none of the visitors had done until that point: he slid over to the mat in front of the coffin and stared at her picture with his head bowed. Unknown to him, the girl he was mourning over was actually standing behind him with shaking shoulders, watching his every movement._

_"At first I was so surprised, Danielle… to hear that you had been abused for so many years startled me badly," he stated evenly, staring at the picture of the girl before him. "You've always acted so carefree that sometimes I wondered if something more was going on along the sidelines, but… oh, God damn it! I don't understand why I don't feel like speaking well of you, but I give up trying! Why didn't you say something to your teachers? Why didn't you come to me for help? You could have made something great out of yourself, so how could God take someone as promising as you out of the world?"_

_Danni watched as his hand tightened into a fist and he began to weep, eyes becoming round and utterly empty of emotion as a grown man—one who had never broken down before—cried for her. She stood there vacantly, not knowing how to react or what to do about any of this— but then another voice broke the stillness of the air for the first time that night._

_"Dan… ni…?" someone whispered softly and brokenly; the albino girl slowly turned her head and stared emptily at the speaker. _

_It was her brother. _

_The albino boy's two-toned eyes were still wide and blank, but now they were filling with tears as he stared at the wall through his disheveled shoulder-length hair. Daniel's face slowly began to scrunch up as he began to cry, still staring vacantly at the wall until—without warning—he burst into hysterical tears. Slowly—ever so slowly—the teenager buried his head in his lap and curled up into a little ball with his back against the wall, wrapping his arms around his legs as he sobbed. _

_Danielle's throat locked up as she watched her brother break down: this was the second time she'd seen him reduced to tears. _

_"This way…" another woman's voice said quietly._

_"Yes, Mommy," a familiar childish voice replied; Danni slowly turned around and watched as her neighbors, Naomi and Richard Valentine,, walked into her house and slowly made their way over to the coffin with their five-year-old son. The three of them sat down, and the child mimicked his parent's movements with a smile: after a moment, the young woman turned to her child and stared at him with solemn eyes._

_"You should say something to honor her," she said softly, touching his shoulder before getting up; with an excited expression, the toddler turned back to Danielle's picture and clasped his hands cheerfully._

_"Thanks for being my friend! And making funny faces when I was sad that one time!" he said brightly while his mother knelt before Daniel—who was shaking with silent tears as he curled up even tighter and covered his ears to block out her soothing words. Danielle Evergreen finally turned away as tears filled her own eyes and she flew up through the ceiling—long silver hair billowing around her body in a shimmering cloud as she fled. She soared into the air above her house and stared down at the place she'd_ **called**_ her home for the last ten years, watching as the Valentine family reluctantly left through the front door._

_"Mommy? Daddy? Do you think it would be okay if I played with the pretty girl who lives next door tomorrow? If I'm good?" the little boy asked, tugging at the woman's hand; his father paled and his mother instantly froze, but both of them slowly knelt down. The woman gently placed a hand on his cheek._

_"No, Jacob," she said quietly, voice cracking slightly; the child cocked his head in confusion before his eyes flooded with realization and he grinned excitedly. _

_"Oh, I know some people sounded mad at her, but she's really nice!" he laughed. "She made me laugh with her funny faces!"_

_The way Lauren's freckled face had contorted in agony as she'd screamed her name flashed into Danni's mind._

_"And one time she got me my ball back when it bounced onto her roof!" he said cheerfully._

_The way Mizuru had struggled to her house just so she could apologize seared across her violet eyes._

_"I don't know why those people were crying like that," the child added_

_The way Headmaster Kiyuukiri's fist tightened as tears fell onto his lap burned behind her retinas._

_"Was it because they wanted to play with her, too?" he asked hopefully._

_And the way her brother had blankly begun to cry punctured a hole in her heart, letting the pain bleed out through her tears. The woman let out a soft sound and pulled her son into her arms as a single tear slid down her cheek. Without feeling anything, Danielle turned around and flew towards the moon until she stopped and sat with her legs folded. Then she gazed at it as tears streamed down her own face, wondering how she could have hurt so many people by simply… not living anymore. _

_"I can't do this," Danielle whispered, burying her face in her hands as the world around her began to dissolve into sparkles. "I can't... not after seeing that."_

_"Can't do what after seeing what?" a soft voice whispered back, sounding a little worried._

_"Live in Equestria after seeing my... my.." Danni mumbled, opening her violet eyes as they started streaming tears—_

**TXXXXXT**

_—_only to find that Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike we're all staring down at her with confused expressions. The girl immediately blinked as she stared at their faces, then glanced down at her hands to see that they'd turned into hooves once again. She glanced at the window with dazed eyes and sat up when she realized that it was probably sometime around noon.

"Yikes... how long did I sleep for?" Danielle asked, awkwardly rubbing her head with a flat hoof and a tired yawn. "Why didn't you guys wake me up?"

"Because of how tired you looked yesterday," Twilight explained, glancing at her friends and urging them to smile with one of her own. "Applejack and Fluttershy came to pick you up a few minutes ago, but you were still asleep so they waited here for you."

"Eh?" Danni squeaked, eyes widening as her long pony ears stood straight up in surprise. "Oh, shoot! I'm so sorry for making you guys wait on me!"

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Fluttershy murmured demurely, smiling a little bit. "Oh, and good afternoon, Danielle."

"Thanks, same to you," the albino sighed, rolling out of bed before awkwardly falling flat on her belly; after a moment of struggling to get up with no avail, she blew an annoying strand of her silver mane clean out of her eyes and glared at the floor. "Ugh, I need to practice walking like a pony before I do anything else."

"Walkin'?" Applejack hooted, letting out a chuckle before she held out a hoof. "Tarnation, why didn't ya say so? I can give ya a few lessons if ya'd like!"

"Really?" Danielle asked, gripping the blonde mare's hoof with both of hers only to slip back to the ground in an ungraceful heap. "Ow! Sheesh, I'm gonna have to learn how to do everything! I've got no fingers now, so this is gonna be a chore... still, I get all my chores done well, so up we go again!"

The two of them got it right on the third try: by that point, Spike was in hysterics, Twilight's cheeks were puffed out from restraining her laughter, Fluttershy was giggling quietly from behind her flapping wings, and Applejack looked as though she couldn't even believe what she was seeing. All in all, Danielle felt extremely embarrassed and hid her muzzle using her hair with a hesitant expression on her face; after a moment, however, she felt an odd sensation in her belly and glanced up with a start.

Why did she feel all loose and floaty?

"I feel weird," Danni murmured, rubbing her head with a hoof. "Almost like I'm getting lighter somehow."

"That's called bein' happy, darlin'," Applejack chuckled, rolling her vibrant green eyes; Fluttershy giggled again.

"Oh..." Danielle peeped, hunching down in even further embarrassment. "Well, so, um... what's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, we WERE plannin' on goin' down to the swimmin' hole, but Fluttershy thought it would be better to take a walk through the woods," Applejack sighed, pouting at the timid Pegasus pony and rolling her eyes when she hid her blue eyes with her pink mane. "So, we thought it'd be nice to ask you what you wanna do fer today."

"Um, why not both?" Danielle asked, blinking in confusion when the other two ponies stared at her. "I mean, isn't there some sort of... I dunno, woodsy trail that leads down to this swimming hole you wanna go to? Because we might be able to take a longer route and enjoy the scenery a little bit before we swim, if you'd both like."

"Er, are you sayin' you'd be willin' to do either?" Applejack asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Why wiouldn't I be willing?" Danni asked with a blink. "I'd feel guilty if one of you had to go without doing your favorite activity because I made a dumb decision."

"Yup, she's a good pony all right," Applejack laughed, glancing at Fluttershy and giving the timid one a high-hoof. "Thanks for helpin' me with that little test."

"Wait... what test?" Danielle asked, feeling more and more baffled by the second. "Uh... I feel like I just missed something important..."

"Oh, no, you didn't miss anything of importance," Fluttershy stated soothingly, pressing her hooves together. "We just wanted to see if you were kind."

"And honest," Applejack added with a smirk, innocently fluttering her lashes at the ceiling; Spike and Twilight shared an amused glance.

"Oh, I see," Danni deadpanned, cocking an eyebrow as she looked at the two of them in dismay; after a moment her violet eyes watered and her ears drooped as she plopped down on the floor and lowered her head. "I... I know I got here under weird circumstances, and I'm fully aware that I'm not a pony like all of _you_ since I've still got the mind of a human girl, but... do I really seem like I'm untrustworthy or something? Do I maybe even seem... mean? Why were you guys testing me?"

"Because, whether or not you're untrustworthy and mean, you're still very suspicious," Applejack stated bluntly, making Danni wince and lower her head even further; the blonde mare's steadfast attitude faltered a little bit and she guiltily rubbed her orange cheek wth a hoof. "Ah mean, uh... ya know... oh, fiddlesticks! Ah'm sorry for hurtin' yer feelin's, Sugar Cube, so will ya please stop doin' that already? You're makin' me feel guiltier than when I first pulled a prank on Fluttershy! And that wasn't no joke!"

"She cried for a whole day," Fluttershy added with soft enthusiasm. "I couldn't say no to her apology after seeing a real river of tears."

"Okay," Danni sighed, looking up at Twilight with tired violet eyes and cracking a barely visible smile. "I'll see you and Spike later... thanks again for taking me in."

"No problem," Twilight laughed, looking up at her bookshelf; she pulled out a quill and some parchment using her magic. "Now, I have to send word to Princess Celestia."

"We'll have her back at a decent hour, Twilight, I promise," Fluttershy called quietly, waving as Danni wobbled towards the door on unsteady legs just behind Applejack.

"Oh, there's no need to do that," the unicorn stated calmly, smiling in amusement. "It's not like she's my foal or anything, so if she wants to stay out, let her."

"Oh, no, Twilight," Fluttershy protested, looking at her with wide eyes. "That's not true at all: you've forgotten that this is Danni's first _real_ day in Equestria, and she can't even walk correctly yet. She practically _is_ like a baby foal on this world, it's just that she has... uh, a a grown-up's mind and body, but no experience at all."

"You're kidding me," Twilight sighed, ears flopping in total dismay and eyes going half-lidded. "That's the best analogy you could come up with?"

"Not at all," Fluttershy murmured, nodding gently with a small smile. "I have to get going now, though, or I might fall behind. I'll see you later, Twilight!"

"Likewise," the unicorn stated absently, already losing herself in the process of writing her letter. "'Dear Princess Celestia... the anomaly I wrote to you about just yesterday morning has turned out to be a lot stranger than some simple swirling clouds that formed in the sky on their own. A very beautiful pony with colorless fur and purple eyes has arrived here in Equestria amongst a bright beam of golden light that descended from those clouds. As of right now, I don't know what to make of her other than the fact that she's not all... _pony._ She's also very timid... well, actually, she's even _more_ timid than Fluttershy is: the difference is _she_ knows how to _hide_ it... mostly. The part that concerns me, however, is not the fact that she was actually a human being at one point... it's the fact that this pony, Danielle, claims that she died and woke up here."

Twilight continued to write the letter, explaining everything she'd noticed about Danielle... from her clumsiness in Pony form, to her otherworldly beauty in human form, to the odd-looking cutie mark she'd developed, to the connection she thought it had between Danny's changes between the two forms, Twilight documented absolutely everything that came to her mind before she signed the letter with her signature and rolling it up; she turned to find Spike examining Danni's human clothes.

"Hey, Twilight?" the dragon asked, pointing down at the insignia on the albino's blue and black school shirt. "Do you know what that symbol means?"

"Nope," the unicorn stated simply, levitating the scroll over to his scaly claws. "I already examined her strange clothes with Rarity this morning, and the two of us took notes on the stitching, the ruffles, the style, and everything else we noticed about the unusual outfit. Rarity was kind of excited, though, and she was actually considering the idea of trying to make a human dress for Danielle after nightfall... when she left, she had _that_ smile on her face again, so I think she'll be busy for a few days."

"Really?" Spike asked in surprise. "I wonder what it'll look like if she's making it for a human?"

"You know how she is," Twilight sighed, tapping her hoof impatiently when she'd realized that Spike had forgotten about the scroll. "Rarity loves her fashion sense and her clothes are always the best of the best, so it''ll most likely be beautiful. Now, can you send that letter to Princess Celestia already please?"

"Oh, right... sorry," Spike chuckled awkwardly, lifting it up and breathing a gout of green fire on it; the scroll vanished amidst a cloud of sparkling lights.

"Hey, Spike?" Twilight asked, looking out the window with worried eyes. "Do you think she'll really be okay?"

"What do you mean?" the dragon asked, blinking his large eyes in confusion.

"I mean," the unicorn muttered, frowning deeply, "I've never seen a pony who talked in her sleep before, so when I heard her voice in the spare room, I went to check out what was going on. Danielle was saying lots of... unpleasant things last night that kind of disturbed me, and they're all things that I probably shouldn't have heard."

"Like what?" Spike asked, eyes going wide. "Do you think she could really be evil?!"

"No, not at all," Twilight snorted, glancing at him with worried eyes, "but I'm starting to think that she came here from a world that _was_._"_


End file.
